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With the recent cataloging of items in the Mather Homestead, this pewter teapot is now item 2017.01.0304.  But for any visitors it is the object of greatest interest in the corner cabinet in the Homestead dining room. The teapot was crafted by Thomas S. Derby (c. 1786-1852: working 1812-1852.)  The Homestead appraisal book describes it as a “wide-bellied teapot with narrow flared neck; a hinged conical lid with button finial.  The S-curved spout opposes the C-scroll handle, resting on a narrow flared foot.” Thomas Derby’s pewter can be found at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and in the Winterthur Collection in Winterthur, Delaware.  The Winterthur catalog states “It seems that Thomas Derby was responsible for leaking T.D. Boardman’s formula for brittania.  He trained in the shop of William Danforth…he apparently worked for himself through the 1830’s and worked with his son Thomas Derby Jr. for part of his career.”  In the early 19th century, the Connecticut Valley was known for its many pewterers, some-times referred to as “the Middletown travelers.”  The Pewter Collectors Club of America’s Summer 2003 Bulletin states that Derby…”then worked for Josiah [Danforth], William's son, beginning about 1821-22. Josiah entrusted him with a secret britannia formula recently discovered by his cousin, Thomas Danforth Boardman. However, shortly thereafter, Derby was hired away by Hiram and Charles Yale, taking with him the Boardman secret. Derby worked for the Yales until around 1830. He then operated his own shop in Middletown from approximately 1830-1850. The engraving on the bottom of the teapot reads Joseph Mather/AND Sarah Scott/Married May 29-1777.  The story most often told during Homestead tours is that the teapot was a twenty-fifth anniversary gift.  HOWEVER, if Thomas Derby’s working period did not begin until 1812, and he was not on his own until “around 1830,” it seems much more likely that the teapot was a gift for the 50th (1827) or even later.  (The Deacon died in 1840 after 62 years of marriage and Sarah died in 1843.)

Among those drawn early to serve in the new National Park Service were a number of women.   In his 1921 Annual Report to the Secretary of the Interior, Stephen Mather took note of one…   “…In Yellowstone daily lectures on its natural features were given by Park Naturalist M. P. Skinner and Miss Mary A. Rolfe…”   Mary A. Rolfe (1881-1974) was the second woman ranger hired at the park.  She earned $100 per month. Her responsibilities included giving three 30-minute lectures each day.  In 1928, she wrote "The National Park Movement," an article published in  Journal of Education  in 1928. She also published a two- volume set for children called  Our National Parks.   In 1929 she wrote to Stephen Mather…      “…I feel great gratitude for all you did for me during the writing of my little readers about the Parks…Furthermore I have recently learned that is to you that I am indebted for one of the great joys of my childhood—the seeing of the twenty mule team of the borax company…”   Enid Michael (1883-1966) was one of the first women rangers at Yosemite.  According to the NPS site: “An ardent naturalist-botanist, Enid was appointed a seasonal ranger in 1921, serving in that position for 20 years. Her duties included lecturing at museums, giving nature walks, and collecting and preparing plant specimens. By 1929, she had collected and mounted 1,000 plant specimens as well as recording visits by 130 bird species. Her most significant accomplishments were the creation of a wildflower garden behind the Yosemite Museum and writing 537 articles—the largest body of writing on Yosemite by any author.”   In 1929, Enid wrote to Stephen…   “It is with grief that I read…of your resignation as Director of National Parks…To me you have always been the strong hand that closed the door of the National Parks against ruthless despoilers.  It gave me a feeling of happiness and security to remember that you were guardian…” Mary A. Rolfe (above)  Enid Michael (with unidentified dancing partner) (above)

From the correspondence received by Stephen Mather during the later years of his position as Director of the National Park Service, we learn some interesting tidbits...   Stephen Mather had an envied facility from remembering names.  From William Adams, a Director of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation…  “…I have many pleasant recollections of you in action but I think the sweetest of all is the night that you gave the buffalo dinner in Washington several years ago when you had some thirty-odd men around one table.  You stood up and introduced each man, reeling off his full name, middle initials, and something about him, without a flurry.  You were a great host and we had a fine time…”   “In the summer between his sophomore and junior years he worked as a book agent for The Home Physician in Shasta County…” The quote comes from Steve Mather and the National Parks but we also have a letter from Hartland Law, Stephen’s employer from that summer…   “…The work you have done will last as long as trees and flowers grow in these parks which you have so conserved and arranged for future generations…You may not remember me at all…but I was the elder Law of the Law, King & Law firm of publishers for whom you went out from Berkeley to the North to sell books…”   Stephen was Member #64 in the Order of Bookfellows , a Chicago-based literary society.   A letter from George Steele Seymour encourages Stephen to renew his membership…    “…I find that somehow you have dropped off the active list, though you are still enrolled as Bookfellow #64.   Whether it was my fault that you dropped out, I do not know; perhaps I was not energetic enough in urging you to renew…”   St ephen owned a Frankin.  In a note to Stephen and his wife, Frank Logan of Logan’s Garage in Washington D.C. wrote…   “I have put the Frankin car in dead storage, and it will taken care of until your return, which I hope will be before very long…” [From a registration in Homestead papers, we know the model was a 1926 Frankin Coupe.]

Horace M. Albright was Assistant Director of the National Park Service under Stephen Mather and became Director himself in 1929. He kept up a lifelong correspondence with Stephen’s daughter, Bertha (Betty) Mather McPherson. Many of these letters have remained in the Homestead attic. In 1986, he wrote… “My dear Betty: Thank you for your letter, and your comment on the Glacier Park sawmill episode…I fully understand your feeling about…the book, for I was surprised that it stayed in despite my request that it be omitted – not the basic story of the mill’s destruction, but the trimmings about your birthday and invitation to tourists to witness the explosion.” So what is the story? In Glacier National Park on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake, The Great Northern Railroad built The Many Glacier Hotel. To construct the hotel, they erected a sawmill which was used in 1914 and 1915 but remained even after the hotel was completed. To Stephen it was an “eyesore” that had to go, but the Great Northern continued to stall. Then, as Big Sky Journal noted: “…After years of letters, telegraph messages, and meetings, Mather traveled to Glacier in August 1925 and dealt with the sawmill personally. He blew it up.” In Stephen Mather of The National Parks , Robert Shankland writes…“Mather had given his orders to the trail crews, invited the hotel guests to step out for a demonstration, and then…had personally lighted the fuse to the first of thirteen charges of TNT. The sawmill was out of business…” “…With each detonation Mather’s mood lightened. By the fifth, as people inquired into his motives, he said: ‘Celebrating my daughter’s nineteenth birthday.’” Albright goes on to write, “…in his(STM’s) telling of the story, he likedto mention your birthday. When hereached Yellowstone with it, and told me, he mentioned both the birthday and the visitors…I am not keeping a copy of this…”

In earlier blogs, we looked at Stephen’s ongoing association with fellow alumni of The New York Sun and we traced his bond with Gilbert Grosvenor, editor of National Geographic and a member of the 1915 Mather Mountain Party.   Stephen Mather was a master at convincing and cajoling the press to promote the public’s awareness and use of the National Parks.  Their appreciation of Stephen is reflected in the letters he received as his time as Director was coming to a close.    In the Bancroft archives we have correspondence from such well-known names such as Frank Gannett, Leo McClatchy, and Harry Chandler…and also from such fourth estate members as Robert Bingham (Louisville Courier-Journal), Edward Butler (Buffalo Evening News), and David Lawrence (the founder of U.S. News and World Report.)  From a few…   William Deming (Editor, The Wyoming Tribune)…”… We miss you in Washington more than I can say.  Your marvelous work as Director the National Park Service will redound to your credit as long as the American people continue to enjoy national playgrounds…”   George Lorimer (Editor, Saturday Evening Post)…”… Your leaving will leave a big hole and one that will be long felt, for I know there is no man in public life is finer and cleaner and who has more devoted friends than you have.  We may not always have agreed on details but I have always been a Mather man and a great admirer of your devoted work in what I feel is one of the most important bureaus of the government…”   Edgar Strother (Managing Editor, World’s Work)…”… I know how you hated to leave it, and how sadly you will be missed.   I’d like to add my handful of laurel to the wreath that should adorn your brow in recognition of the great work in the preservation and pleasurable use of the Parks…”   John Burnham (Former editor, Forest & Stream)…”I have always admired your keen ability and unswerving devotion to the cause which you made your own.  There are mighty few instances of finer public service than you have rendered, and you have the satisfaction of knowing you have created a tangible monument for yourself – just about the finest that could be conceived…”

The newspaper report on “the ‘Centennial’ at the old Mather Homestead” continues “…On a nearer approach, merry voices were heard, and were added to by new arrivals. Distant thunder and frequent drops of rain now admonished…that a shower was coming…” Another newspaper article observed, “There were about sixty present, and had it not been for a heavy shower…there would have doubtless been double that number. Over the door was hung a large card on which was printed “Our Grandfather’s Home, July 1778-1878…” The first article then adds, “Aunt Betsey and Phebe, Miss A. E. Lockwood, Mrs. D.B. Mather and daughter aided by others had prepared the table…and…the 60 or more who were present were abundantly fed.” A letter from a grandson of the Deacon, Rev. Charles Selleck, was read. [The full text of the letter is online on Homestead site under Documents from the Archives.] In the letter, Rev. Selleck commented on his memories of being at the Homestead—especially at Thanksgiving. “…Dinner being served, always sumptuous and ample, first to the grown people, then to the numerous community of children, the afternoon was given up to chat and hilarity. No wine, no brandy, no smoking, but all satisfied and serious, the elder members of the family would engage in a vivacious conversation, while the children, out in the orchard, or up in the chamber would engage in lively sports and plays…” The event concluded with “All heartily joined in singing “Should old acquaintance be forgot” and wishing for continued blessing on the ‘Mather Centennial.’” Image below: The Homestead in 1879, one year after the Centennial Celebration.

Taken about 1879, this photograph of three women on the front porch is the oldest Homestead photograph we have.   But who are they? On the back of the original photograph, in Bertha’s handwriting  is the following:    Mather Homestead-oldest photo.  Left to right – daughters of Deacon             Jos. Mather – Phebe Mather, Rana Mather, Betsy Lockwood.   But, in a note affixed to a copy of the photo, again in Bertha’s handwriting, is: The Mather Homestead 1879.  Left to right: Ann Elizabeth Lockwood niece of the aunties and daughter of their sister Betsy Lockwood.  Aged 57.  Aunt Rana Mather aged 96.  Aunt Phoebe Mather aged 81.   So, is it Betsy or Ann Elizabeth in the photo?  Why did Phebe move from left to right?  Or could that be Betsy on the right?   In 1879, Rana would have been 96, Phebe 81, Betsy 85, and Ann Elizabeth 57.   Although the identities may never be resolved, we do know that in 1879, the Home-stead was treasured and capably tended to by four exceptional Mather women.

To encourage protection of America’s western natural wonders, Stephen Mather invited a number of influential individuals to join the Mather Mountain Pary of 1915.  Among them was Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the editor of The National Geographic. The inclusion was quickly rewarded when Grosvenor devoted the entire April 1916 issue to the “Land of the Best” and encouraged readers to support a Park Service.  A copy was sent to every member of Congress.  These efforts worked, and that same year Grosvenor helped to draft the legislation that would eventually establish the National Park Service. Years later, Grosvenor wrote the introduction for Robert Shankland’s book, Steve Mather of the National Parks.  In part he wrote, “…In this volume Robert Shankland not only chronicles Mr. Mather’s achievements but offers penetrating insight into the man’s love of nature and his deep-seated desire to preserve its more spectacular and awe-inspiring phases for the delight of future generations of Americans…” In a note to Mrs. Mather, John LaGorce, Vice-President of National Geographic Society wrote: “…I just know that you and Miss Betty have that fine quality of courage that will keep dear old Steve as no others can.  God bless him.  There isn’t a finer or more unselfish man on earth and every one of his thousands of friends who know of his illness are ’feeling’ for him…” William Showalter, an Associate Editor of National Geographic, wrote to Stephen… …Glamorous has been your leadership, magnificent your spirit, sublime your appreciation of an urban-drifting nation’s need…Come back to us with renewed vigor and we will make you realize that you have indeed been a prophet with honor in his own country…”

If you wander through the Mather Cemetery, you’ll find the headstone for Betsey Mather Lockwood (1794-1891), the ninth of Deacon Joseph Mather and Sarah Scott’s eleven children. Betsey, first married at twenty, was twice-widowed by the age of thirty-one. Betsey had two daughters, one by each of her husbands.   To the right of Betsey’s headstone is that of her second daughter, Ann Elizabeth Lockwood. Integral to Homestead history, Ann Elizabeth, who never married, inherited the Homestead from her aunt Phebe and subsequently sold the property to Stephen Mather’s father, Joseph Wakeman Mather. The headstone to the left of Betsey’s is that of Sarah Ann Bell Faulkner.  Born in 1815 to Betsey and her first husband Jonathan Bell, Sarah married William Faulkner in 1849.   According to the Federal census of 1850, William and Sarah Ann were living in Brooklyn along with Betsey and Ann Elizabeth.  Little more than five years after her marriage, Sarah Ann died on 13 October 1854. Sadly, to the left of Sarah Ann’s headstone is a single headstone for Sarah Ann and William’s two small girls, Mary L. Faulkner (October 1850-February 1854) and Sarah A. Faulkner (July 1853-March 1854.)  Now at age sixty, Betsey had buried two husbands, a daughter, and her only two grandchildren. Although we lack comprehensive death records for the mid-nineteenth century, 1854 is remembered as the year of cholera, claiming more than 2,000 lives in New York City. Ultimately, the causes of death are inconsequential.  Perhaps of greater solace is that in a peaceful, sunlit space in Darien, these five lives are together remembered and united.

Among the Stephen Mather correspondence at the Bancroft Library are notes and letters from at least six of Stephen’s colleagues at The New York Sun.  Stephen Mather became a reporter at The Sun soon after graduating from Berkeley in 1887 and remained there until 1893. In Steve Mather and the National Parks, Robert Shankland speaks of that time… “…The office resembled a seat of higher learning; it radiated spirit, teamwork, and auld-lang-syne, and it even, beginning not long after the turn of the century, had an alumni association.  In this climate, Mather, the Eternal Freshman, basked…” In a 1929 letter to Stephen, a fellow alumnus, C.J. Fitzgerald, shared similar memories… “I look back on the old days when we were such a happy family in the Sun office.  Boy, what a staff.  I would like to show the present-day school of journalists what a scintillating galaxy of talent that was that “worked for Dana on the New York Sun…” In the Bancroft archives are two letters from Assistant Editor Charles Rosebault.  In the latter letter, Rosebault offers good wishes upon Stephen’s retirement from the National Park Service.  But his earlier letter from 1894 was prescient in anticipating Stephen’s future after The Sun… “…You have also proved that you possess ambition and determination.  I do not see what can prevent your speedy acquirement of the riches we are all seeking.  Very possibly the time is not too far distant when we unfortunate news-paper fellows will be getting up names about “Stephen Tyng Mather, plutocrat, monopolist, multi-millionaire, etc…Well, old boy, nobody can wish you more good fortune than I…”

In Steve Mather of the National Parks, Robert Shankland writes “During the whole germination period, the Geological Survey, “the mother of all bureaus,” helped out magnificently…it gave Mather, for his Washington office, a pair of willing workers who are still with the Park Service.  One, Arthur E. Demaray…The other acquisition, Isabelle Story, has risen, but dint of her devotion and manifest abilities as a writer and administrator, to Editor-in-Chief…” In a January 1929, Isabelle Story sent a letter to Stephen Mather, in part writing… “…I’m sure all the Park Service people agree with me that your leaving is a distinct personal loss to each and every one of us.  Your marvelous enthusiasm and unselfish spirit have been an inspiration to us all, both in Washington and in the field…Please tell Mrs. Mather that I’m going to miss seeing her ever so much …Mother joins me in regards to you both and the very best of good wishes…” Excerpts from the National Park Service website, tell us more of this ground-breaking and ceiling-breaking woman… “…A woman of remarkable achievement when women occupied the sidelines more often than the playing field, she stood shoulder to shoulder with Horace Albright and other NPS giants during the founding years… …She transferred to the National Park Service as a clerk in the Office of the Secretary on July 10, 1916, about six weeks before the NPS was created…In 1930 Story became the first woman division chief, supervising up to 50 employees in the Division of Publications. She wrote speeches for DOI officials and prepared a booklet for the Colonial Over-Seas International Exposition in Paris in 1931 that earned her a medal from the French government.  She became the first NPS editor-in-chief in 1934…Isabelle Story's whirlwind with the National Park Service continued until retirement in 1954.”

In February 1929, Stephen Mather received a note on the letterhead of “Government of Palestine Deputy District Commissioner’s Offices, Jerusalem Division, Jerusalem.”  The sender was Edward Keith-Roach, the Deputy District Commissioner. In his letter, Keith-Roach writes… “In these days of rush and turmoil it is a great achievement for the American nation to have had the services of so distinguished an administrator as yourself to undertake this duty for future generations yet unborn…You may remember I had the privilege of meeting you more than once with Mr. and Mrs. Adams during my never-forgotten visit to Washington.” In a 2020 article, the Times of Israel reported that Edward Keith-Roach may have been at the heart of a Muslim-Zionist confrontation that evolved into the Hebron massacre of August 1929. Responding to a complaint after some Jewish worshipers set up a screen at the Western Wall to separate men and women during prayer, “Keith-Roach warned the Jews to remove the screen by the next morning. When the Jews refused to do so, Keith-Roach ordered the British police to remove the screen by force… …The incident provoked an international outcry…The Zionists argued the mandatory government had violated Jewish prayer rights at the Wall by removing the screen. The Muslims alleged the screen violated the status quo and represented a Jewish effort to wrest ownership of the Wall from the Muslim Waqf.” Events did escalate resulting in an explosion of violence in August of 1929.   After the event, the British High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir John Chancellor, wrote words that still have undeniable resonance: “under present conditions I know of no one who would be a good High Commissioner of Palestine except God.”